Electrophoretic displays have been the subject of intense research and development for a number of years. Such displays use a display medium comprising a plurality of electrically charged particles suspended in a fluid. Electrodes are provided adjacent the display medium so that the charged particles can be moved through the fluid by applying an electric field to the medium. In one type of such electrophoretic display, the medium comprises a single type of particle having one optical characteristic (typically a first color) in a fluid which is has a different optical characteristic (typically being dyed a different color). In a second type of such electrophoretic display, the medium contains two different types of particles differing in at least one optical characteristic and in electrophoretic mobility; the particles may or may not bear charges of opposite polarity.
Electrophoretic displays can be divided into two main types, namely unencapsulated and encapsulated displays. In an unencapsulated electrophoretic display, the electrophoretic medium is present as a bulk liquid, typically in the form of a flat film of the liquid present between two parallel, spaced electrodes. Such unencapsulated displays typically have problems with their long-term image quality which have prevented their widespread usage. For example, particles that make up such electrophoretic displays tend to cluster and settle, resulting in inadequate service-life for these displays.
An encapsulated, electrophoretic display differs from an unencapsulated display in that the particle-containing fluid is not present as a bulk liquid but instead is confined within the walls of a large number of small capsules. Encapsulated displays typically do not suffer from the clustering and settling failure mode of traditional electrophoretic devices and provides further advantages, such as the ability to print or coat the display on a wide variety of flexible and rigid substrates.
Prior art electrophoretic displays use particles, which, while small (typically about 0.25 to 2 .mu.m), are sufficiently large that they have essentially the bulk properties of the material from which they are formed. The particles keep the same optical properties during the time they are present in the electrophoretic display; the appearance of the display is changed by moving the particles within the suspending fluid using an appropriate electrical field. For example, consider the prior art electrophoretic display represented in a schematic manner in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. This display is provided on its front viewing surface (the top surface as illustrated in FIG. 1) with a common, transparent front electrode 100, and on its rear surface with an opaque substrate 102 carrying a matrix of discrete electrodes; only two of these electrodes, designated 104 and 106 respectively, are shown in FIG. 1. Each of the discrete electrodes 104 and 106 defines a pixel of the display. An encapsulated electrophoretic medium (generally designated 108) is disposed between the common electrode 100 and the discrete electrodes 104 and 106; for ease of illustration, FIG. 1 shows only a single capsule 110 of the medium 108 associated with each discrete electrode 104 and 106, although in practice a plurality of capsules (typically at least 20) would be associated with each discrete electrode. Also for ease of illustration, the capsules are shown in FIG. 1 as of circular cross-section, although in practice it is preferred that they have a flattened form.
Each of the capsules 110 comprises a capsule wall 112, a dark colored fluid 114 (assumed for present purposes to be blue) contained within this capsule wall 112 and a plurality of light colored charged particles 116 (assumed for present purposes to be titania particles 250-500 nm is diameter) suspended in the fluid 114. For purposes of illustration, it is assumed that the titania particles 116 are negatively charged so that they will be drawn to whichever of their associated discrete electrode and the common electrode is at the higher potential. However, the particles 116 could alternatively be positively charged. Also, the particles could be dark in color and the fluid 114 light in color so long as sufficient color contrast occurs as the particles move between the front and rear surfaces of the display medium, as shown in FIG. 1.
In the display shown in FIG. 1, each of the discrete electrodes is held at either 0 or +V (where V is a drive voltage) while the common front electrode 100 is held at an intermediate voltage +V/2. Since the titania particles 116 are negatively charged, they will be attracted to whichever of the two adjacent electrodes is at the higher potential. Thus, in FIG. 1, discrete electrode 104 is shown as being held at 0, so that the particles 116 within the adjacent capsule move adjacent the common electrode 100, and thus adjacent the top, viewing surface of the display. Accordingly, the pixel associated with discrete electrode 104 appears white, since light entering the viewing surface is strongly reflected from the titania particles adjacent this surface. On the other hand, discrete electrode 106 in FIG. 1 is shown as being held at +V, so that the particles 116 within the adjacent capsule move adjacent the electrode 106, and the color of the pixel associated with electrode 106 is that exhibited by light entering the viewing surface of the display, passing through the colored fluid 114, being reflected from the titania particles adjacent electrode 116, passing back through the colored fluid 114, and finally re-emerging from the viewing surface of the display, i.e., the associated pixel appears blue.
It should be noted that the change in the appearance of a pixel of this electrophoretic display as the voltage on the associated discrete electrode changes is solely due to the change of the position of the titania particles within the fluid; the color and other optical characteristics of the titania particles themselves do not change during operation of the electrophoretic display. In both the pixels shown in FIG. 1, the function of the titania particles is to scatter light strongly.
Obviously, the type of display shown in FIG. 1 can use particles of pigments other than titania, for example magenta pigments such as Hostaperm Pink E (Hoechst Celanese Corporation) and Lithol Scarlet (BASF), yellow pigments such as Diarylide Yellow (Dominion Color Company), cyan pigments such as Sudan Blue OS (BASF), and the like (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,726). However, in all cases the contribution of the pigment to the color of the display depends on the position of the pigment with respect to the viewer. When the pigment particles are adjacent the viewing surface of the display, the light scattered by the pigment is the color viewed. When the pigment is adjacent the rear surface of the display, the color is the color obtained when light passes through the fluid, is scattered from the pigment adjacent the rear surface, and then passes through the fluid again.
The single particle/color fluid type of electrophoretic display shown in FIG. 1 has two disadvantages. Firstly, the display can only produce two colors, in the manner already described, and is not capable of producing a wide range of colors. Secondly, to effect a change between the two color states, it is necessary for the titania particles to move under the electric field essentially the full distance between the two electrodes, and in practice this typically leads to a transition time between the two states of a few hundred milliseconds, and a frame rate of the order of 1 Hz, which is too slow for video applications.
Combinations of different colored pigments can be used in electrophoretic displays to form different colored images. If the different colored pigments are contained in the same volume of liquid, different colors are possible provided that the motion of each color of pigment under the influence of an electric field is different. For example, a mixture of white pigment particles positively charged and black pigment particles negatively charged could be used to make black on white or white on black images by application of appropriate electric fields.
An electrophoretic display containing only two differently colored pigments is only capable of producing a few different colors: two when either color -pigment is on the viewing side of the display, one when both pigments are on the viewing side of the display, and one when both pigments are on the back of the display. Such displays are not capable of producing a wide range of colors.
When the electrophoretic display contains just two colored pigments then the position of the colored pigments can be controlled if the colored pigments have electric charges of opposite polarity. With the electric field on with one polarity, the pigment of one color will migrate to the front of the display and the pigment of the other color will migrate to the back of the display. When the electric field is reversed, the pigments will exchange places, changing the color visible to the viewer. The time necessary to switch the color of the display is the time necessary for the pigment particles to diffuse under an applied electric field from one side of the display to the other, and is thus similar in magnitude to that of the electrophoretic display discussed above with reference to FIG. 1.
It is possible to construct an electrophoretic display composed of two different color pigments with the same polarity of charge but substantially different electrophoretic mobilities, if the electrophoretic mobility of one pigment is substantially different from that of the other. One appropriate addressing scheme is to pull all the particles to the rear of the display with the appropriate electric field. The reverse electric field is then applied only as long as it takes the more mobile of the two types of particles to reach the front viewing surface. This produces the color of the higher mobility particles. To produce the color of the lower mobility particles, all of the particles are pulled to the front of the display. Then, the field is reversed long enough that the more mobile particles are pulled away from the front electrode, leaving the lower mobility particles adjacent the front electrode. This produces the color of the lower mobility particles. The average time necessary to switch the color of the display is still at least the time necessary for the pigment particles to diffuse under an applied electric field from one side of the display to the other.
In theory, it would be possible to produce electrophoretic displays with a multitude of different colored pigments dispersed in a fluid. If each colored pigment had its own distinct electrophoretic mobility, then a range of colors could be produced in a manner similar to that just described for an electrophoretic display composed of two colored pigments with the same sign, but different magnitudes of electrophoretic mobilities. However, two obvious problems are likely to render such media containing more than three or four colors impossible to produce in practice. All pigment dispersions, even of the same chemistry, have distributions of electrophoretic mobilities arising from a distribution of particle sizes, a distribution of particle charges, and a distribution of particle shapes. In order to control the image color with a multitude of different colored pigments, the distributions of electrophoretic mobilities for each color pigment would have to be substantially separated. This is a difficult challenge. Not only would the distributions of electrophoretic mobilities have to be substantially non-overlapping when the display was manufactured, they would have to remain substantially non-overlapping for the useful life of the display. Furthermore, the switching time necessary to switch the color of the display would still be at least as great as in the electrophoretic displays discussed above.
One approach to expanding the limited range of colors available from conventional electrophoretic displays is to place an array of colored filters over the pixels of the display. For example, the display shown in FIG. 1 could be modified by changing the color of the fluid 114 to black or gray instead of blue and then placing an array of color filters (say red, green and blue) over the individual pixels of the display. Moving the titania particles adjacent the viewing surface of a pixel covered with a red filter would color that pixel red, whereas moving the titania particles of the same pixel adjacent the rear surface of the display would render the pixel dark or black. The main problem with this approach to generating color is that the color saturation is low. For example, if a red color is desired, the one-third of the pixels covered with red filters are set to appear red; whereas the two-thirds of the pixels covered with green and blue filters are set to appear dark, so that only one-third of the display surface has the desired color while two-thirds is dark, thus limiting the brightness of any color obtained.
In encapsulated electrophoretic displays another method can be used to create different colored images, namely the different colored particles can be encapsulated in different microcapsules. Microcapsules containing each of the colors can be coated on top of the appropriate addressing electrodes so that the color of choice can be displayed by moving the pigment of that color in its capsule from the back of the display to the front while all the other color pigments in their own capsules are kept at the back of the display. This design suffers from one of the same limitations as the display using color filters. When a particular color pigment is moved to the viewing surface of the display and all the other colors are moved to the back of the display, then the display surface only shows the desired color over a fraction of its surface with all the other surface showing the background color. This limits the color saturation obtainable.
Thus, a common feature of all these prior art methods to create color in electrophoretic displays is that the different colors are created primarily by controlling the position of the particles in the display, that is the color is determined by whether any particular colored pigment particles are near the viewing surface of the display or near the back of the display. Also, the time necessary to change colors is the time necessary for particles to move under the influence of an applied electric field from one side of the display to the other, and this time is typically of the order of hundreds of milliseconds.
The present invention seeks to provide electrophoretic displays which can achieve a greater variety of colors than are possible in prior art displays. The present invention also seeks to provide electrophoretic displays with reduced switching times.